I was wondering if anyone has any experience taking any of the Kyushu sightseeing trains, specifically [the Aso Boy](https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/asoboy.html)! Our trip in May has us going from Kumamoto to Beppu on Friday, May 19th, and I was hoping to make the transport there special and scenic by taking one of these trains. Do we have to get off at Aso or can we stay on the train and get off at Beppu? Heck, would we be able to start at Kumamoto, get off at Aso to sightsee a little bit around the station, then hop back on the next Aso Boy heading towards Beppu and get off at Beppu as our destination (this is probably not allowed, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Okay, it does hurt to ask, but just my pride when I get a snarky answer). The website is fairly informative but I would need to get my JR railpass before I can make any reservations and see the details like price.
I also noticed there’s the [Limited Express train the Kyushu Odan Tokkyu](https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/odan.html) that also goes from Kumamoto to Beppu. Do you think that’s more of what I’m looking for since I’m basically needing to get from Kumamoto to Beppu, and a stop at Aso to sightsee a few hours would be a plus but not a necessity?
TL;DR:Has anyone ridden Aso Boy! or the Kyushu Odan Tokyyu? What was your experience? How hard is it to reserve a seat through the JR Kyushu website after getting your railpass? Are you able to hop off at Aso and hop back on to complete your journey with a later train?
Or just feel free to tell me about any of your experiences with sightseeing trains in Kyushu! My partner and I just love trains and watching the world go by as we travel in them!
2 comments
Kyushu has a lot of cool sightseeing trains. Even the regular ones we took while in Kyushu were just more stylish. Take as many different lines as you can in Kyushu as each will be a bit different and, outside of the subway we took like 2 stops in Fukuoka, none of the ones we too were like the normal ones in Tokyo. We took the [Yufuin no Mori sightseeing train](https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/yufuin_no_mori.html) from Fukuoka to Beppu and enjoyed it a lot.
We bought our JR Kyushu Pass and seat reservations for this train right in the station in Nagasaki (as that is where we flew into). So I didn’t use the online JR Kyushu pass purchase option but I’m sure it’ll be pretty straightforward. You can get seat reservations up to 30 days before you’re planned date of travel. So, just set a reminder in your calendar to get your pass and seat reservations 30 days prior and you should be good. Or, buy the pass online and get your seat reservations at the JR Kyushu Ticket office of the airport/main station you arrive into.
I believe all the sightseeing trains require reservations so get the seat on the train to Aso and then get off to sightsee. Then just hop on a regular train to your next destination or go to the ticket office and ask for a seat on the next Aso Boy coming through. Some of these trains only run on weekends though and can book up so you may only be able to ride the sightseeing train partway if you want to stop off. But the regular trains typically run on the same tracks so you’ll get the same view often anyways.
There’s also a brand new Shinkansen line between Nagasaki and Fukuoka, the Kamome Shinkansen, that might be fun to take too. We saw a test run pull into the station in Nagasaki but it wasn’t running yet when we were in Kyushu.
Happy Planning!
I plan to take several of them around Kyushu. They are not different than regular train, you can stop or take it at any station where the train stop.
For Aso Boy, it clearly show that the train start in Kumamoto and stop in Beppu, so you can do the whole line or just part of it. Yes you can take it in Kumamoto, but if you want to stop by Aso, then you have to take two different trains as it will just trop for a minute in Aso…. if you want to get on the next Aso Boy, then you have to wait the next day as it only run once a day… and mostly just the weekend.
The Aso Boy is replacing the schedule of the Odan Tokkyu 81 and 83, they share the same route/timetable. It’s basically the same, just that one is a fancier train.
So what you will have to do if you want to do the whole route from Kumamoto to Beppu on these train is to take the Aso Boy at 9:11 and arrive to Aso at 10:32, then take the Odan Tokkyu 3 at 16:13 and get to Oita station at 17:57. From there is you want to go to Beppu, you would have to take a local train as this Odan Tokkyu does not go to Beppu.
If you are getting the full JR Pass, then I do not think you can use th JR Kyushu website to book, you would have to buy the pass from the official JR website and book it with their app. [https://www.japanrailpass-reservation.net/](https://www.japanrailpass-reservation.net/)
If you get the JR Kyushu pass, then you might be able to book it on the JR Kyushu website, never did it, but it look like you can.